{"id":314494,"date":"2023-07-07T23:50:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T23:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314494"},"modified":"2023-07-08T01:59:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T01:59:27","slug":"i-couldnt-breathe-punishing-reality-facing-wallabies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314494","title":{"rendered":"'I couldn't breathe': Punishing reality facing Wallabies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies<\/a> coach Eddie Jones<\/a> has played it down, perhaps reluctant to give his players a potential excuse for another failure on the Highveld.<\/p>\n

But former Test lock Justin Harrison said the altitude factor in Pretoria is real, and debilitating, ahead of Sunday's (AEST) Rugby Championship opener.<\/a><\/p>\n

"I couldn't breathe the whole time through – it's hard man," Harrison said on Stan Sport's Rugby Heaven<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch Springboks vs Wallabies and Pumas vs All Blacks in the Rugby Championship on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Quade<\/p>\n

"It's like an asthmatic ant carrying a heavy load of shopping. It's proper – you're in quicksand the whole time."<\/p>\n

Australia has lost all seven of its Tests at Loftus Versfeld and Jones lost all five of his Tests in South Africa \ufeffin his previous stint as Wallabies coach.<\/p>\n

To simulate the 1350m altitude, Wallabies legend Tim Horan \ufeffran on a treadmill in a hyperbaric chamber at Ballymore on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Legend's call after Marsh blasts sizzling Ashes ton<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Simple' problem that's 'losing England the Ashes'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Carey drowned in boos by savage English crowd<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1676125446881284097?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

"They cranked it up and I was hanging… there's no air to actually breathe in," Horan said.<\/p>\n

"About two hours after doing this your chest is still burning. They (Ballymore experts) said you need to be there for four weeks before you properly acclimatise."<\/p>\n

Many of the Wallabies have never been to South Africa before, let alone played a Test in Pretoria.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

"It's easily one of the most difficult Tests in the world, not just Africa," former Wallabies loose forward Stephen Hoiles said.<\/p>\n

Sunday's Test between the Springboks and Wallabies gets underway at 1:05am with coverage live, ad-free, and exclusively on Stan Sport<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffSPRINGBOKS (15-1):<\/strong> Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach, Duane Vermeulen (c), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Marco van Staden, Marvin Orie, Jean Kleyn, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff<\/p>\n

Reserves:<\/strong> Joseph Dweba, Thomas du Toit, Vincent Koch, RG Snyman, Evan Roos, Deon Fourie, Grant Williams, Damian Willemse<\/p>\n

WALLABIES (15-1):<\/strong> Tom Wright, Suliasi Vunivalu, Len Ikitau, Reece Hodge, Marika Koroibete, Quade Cooper, Nic White, Rob Valetini, Michael Hooper (co-c), Tom Hooper, Will Skelton, Nick Frost, Allan Alaalatoa, Dave Porecki, James Slipper (co-c)<\/p>\n

Reserves:<\/strong> Jordan Uelese, Matt Gibbon, Zane Nonggorr, Richie Arnold, Pete Samu, Tate McDermott, Samu Kerevi, Carter Gordon<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has played it down, perhaps reluctant to give his players a potential excuse for another failure on the Highveld. But former […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314498,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314494\/revisions\/314498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}